Develop Skills in Multiple Languages

You can use the Alexa Skills Kit to create skills in multiple languages. A skill can support a single language, or any combination of the available languages:

English (AU)

English (CA)

English (IN)

English (UK)

English (US)

French (CA)

French (FR)

German (DE)

Italian (IT)

Japanese (JP)

Spanish (ES)

Spanish (MX)

Users who interact with Alexa in a particular language can use skills that support that language. For example, a user might set their Alexa device to use German. That user can enable and use any published skills available in their region that support German.

Tip: Supporting multiple languages makes your skill available to more users. Consider providing support for as many languages as you can to increase your user base. For example, if you support English (US), consider adding support for the other English locales, such as English (UK) and English (India).

Note: You can add additional languages to an existing skill. For any new skills you create, you can select the initial language for the skill. For instance, if you create a completely new skill, you could choose German to make it a German skill, then optionally add English later.

Include logic in your code to check incoming requests (IntentRequest, LaunchRequest, and SessionEndedRequest) for the user's language and respond in the correct language.
For example, if the user launched your skill in German, your skill should return German text to speech that Alexa can speak to the user.

Intent schema: A set of intents your service can accept and process. We recommend keeping the intents consistent across different languages so that customers have consistent experience across languages.

Sample utterances: A mapping between the intents and likely spoken phrases.

Implement Code Changes for a Custom Skill

The cloud-based service you create for a custom skill needs to be able to handle requests from all languages you support. For instance, if your skill supports both German and English (UK), the same code must:

Take a German request and respond to the user with German text-to-speech.

Take an English (UK) request and respond to the user with English text-to-speech.

You can determine the language used to invoke the skill by checking the locale property included in all requests sent to your service (for example, LaunchRequest or IntentRequest. See Request Format for more about the different types of requests your skill can receive). Note that list events and skill events that are sent to your service do not include the locale property.

Although feature parity across languages is not required, keep in mind that users will be able to choose the language for their devices and switch between languages. A user may therefore interact with your skill in more than one language, so providing a consistent experience across languages is important.

Provide Multiple Endpoints for Your Skill

The Alexa service currently determines which endpoint to call based on the customer's location and the endpoints you provide. You can specify any combination of the following endpoints for your skill.

Geographical region

Used for...

North America

Customers in North America (customers who registered their device with the .com or .ca site)

Europe and India

Customers in Europe (customers who registered their device with a European site, such as .de, .fr or .co.uk)

Customers in India (customers who registered their device with the India site .in)

Far East

Customers in Japan and Australia/New Zealand (customers who registered their device with .co.jp or .com.au)

If the preferred endpoint for the customer's region is not available, Alexa calls the Default endpoint.

If you choose to use multiple endpoints, you must deploy the same code to each one. A user request in a particular language can be sent to any of your endpoints. For example, suppose your skill supports both English (US) and German. An English request from a user using amazon.de would go to the Europe endpoint (if provided). The code at that endpoint must be able to handle and respond appropriately to an English-language request. Use the locale property provided in the request to identify the user's language, as described in Implementing Code Changes for a Custom Skill.

If you are using AWS Lambda to host your skill service, the Lambda function must be hosted in a specific region:

Decide Where to Distribute Your Skill

The Where would you like this skill to be available? option determines the countries and regions in which customers can enable and use your skill. Customers can access all skills that meet all of the following:

The skill is distributed in their country or region.

The skill supports the language selected for their Alexa-enabled device.

The skill supports the primary language for the country or region in which the customer's device is registered. This determines whether the skill is available in the skill store. For example:

A skill must have an English (US) version to be available to customers who registered their devices with the .com site.

A skill must have a German version to be available to customers who registered their devices with the .de site.

The distribution applies to the skill, not to individual languages. All language versions of the skill are made available to customers in the specified countries and regions, barring content policy restrictions.

It is important to remember that customers can choose the language they want to use for their devices, and they are not constrained by their location when choosing the language. For instance, a customer using a .de account can choose to use a different language, such as English (UK), for their Alexa devices. However, changing the language does not affect the skill catalog available to the .de account in the skill store. Therefore, to make a skill available to customers who use .de accounts, you need to include a German version in the skill store.

Example: Worldwide Distribution with One Language

You choose to distribute your skill in all countries and regions where Amazon distributes skills. You configure the skill with just English (UK) and no other languages. The result:

The skill is available in the skill store for all countries and regions where English (UK) is the primary language.

The skill can be used by customers in those countries and regions who have set their device to use English (UK).

The skill is not available to customers anywhere in the world who have selected German, English (US), or any other language for their devices.

Example: Limited Distribution with Multiple Languages

You choose to distribute your skill only in Germany because your skill's functionality is region-specific. You configure the skill with German and English (UK) for the languages. In this case:

The skill is available only in the German skill store, due to the selected country distribution.

The skill can be used by customers in Germany who have set their devices to use German.

The skill can be used by customers in Germany who have set their devices to use English (UK).

The skill cannot be used by customers in Germany who have set their devices to use English (US) or any other language.

The skill cannot be used by customers in any other country or region, regardless of the language they've selected for their devices.

Should Your Skill be Available Everywhere?

Distributing your skill everywhere Amazon has a presence expands your potential customer and user base. Selecting In all countries and regions where Amazon distributes skills is often the best option unless there is a good reason to limit your skill's availability.

When you distribute a skill globally, it is available to users worldwide who have configured their devices to use a language that your skill supports.

When you limit the availability of the skill to a particular country or region, it is available just to users in the specified country / region who have configured their devices to use a language that your skill supports.

When deciding on your skill's availability, consider whether the skill can be useful to customers in other countries. For example, a trivia game skill can be entertaining regardless of where the user may live, especially if you can add additional languages. In contrast, some skills are useful only in particular geographic areas. A skill that provides food delivery for major US cities, but not in Europe, would not be useful in countries or regions other than the United States.